Wealth & Poverty Stricken Mindsets

What is wealth, really?

This question has been on my mind all month.

This is usually an unconscious signal for me. A signal telling me I need to write about this topic.

I believe it has been on my mind for many reasons.

I am in the middle of building a consultancy business, so I have been (reluctantly) reading a lot of business and marketing websites recently.

So financial wealth is a concept I think about daily.

At the same time, I am living in a nice, albeit small apartment in a poor neighborhood in a developing country.

The contrasts of wealth I encounter on a daily basis are immense.

The more I travel as a digital nomad, the more I am starting to learn about other types of wealth, besides financial security. While walking (or running; when motivated) around my current city, I witness people who own so little but work so hard.

Many of the people here have very little in terms of material goods, at least not to the extent of where I used to live outside of Washington, D.C. Yet, people seem infinitely more happy than the well-heeled business suited drones I previously witnessed walking up and down K Street in Northwest D.C.

In the neighborhood I am living in there is a real sense of love for community. People not only talk to each other but look for one another.

On my block there is a young mentally and physically disabled girl in a wheelchair. She is often located near a sidewalk by my apartment. I have observed whenever I walk by her, the boys in the neighborhood stop playing momentarily and eye me warily.

Clearly, I am the stranger and they are looking out for her safety. The day I realized this, I found it profoundly touching.

One night, while coming back to my apartment after dinner, I noticed ten youths crowded around a first level apartment. Apparently, the owner of the apartment had a large flat screen television and everyone was intently watching a soccer (sorry futbol) game. Neighbors spending time with neighbors.

I lived in the Washington, DC area for almost fifteen years, I can count on one hand the amount of neighbors I knew and was friends with while living there.

The young people I have interacted with here seem to have a passion for learning as well. This interest in learning has nothing to do with increasing their socioeconomic status but to learn for the sake of learning. I can't remember the last time I encountered that in the U.S.

I have taken several pics of various art works during my travels and I am amazed at the kind of street art that has been produced here that I never would have thought possible. I am so used to the US where it is mostly gang graffiti and ugly.

In my life, I had periods where I had quite a bit of money and other times where I have had very little but I have never felt poor, my mindset has always been about growth, learning, and creativity in some form.

As a digital nomad, I am becoming more aware of the world around me and learning about my fellow human beings outside the US. I understand now that one can be poor financially but wealthy in so many other ways.

Although I meet a lot of poor people here, I rarely encounter true ignorance.

When I worked in social services in the US after graduate school, I encountered ignorance and a poverty stricken mindset daily, it was demoralizing. I guess I assumed that the poor were the same all over the world, stricken with the same poverty mindset.

I am glad to know I was wrong. I am curing my own ignorance.